- Auto-Owners Insurance employs many people who live in and outside of our neighborhoods since they started hiring for fully remote positions after 2020
- Around October, one Auto-Owners Insurance employee told me upper management sent a mass email saying they expected everyone to return to the office two days a week starting in January.
- Employees say the reasons the company listed were company culture and innovation
- In response, a group of employees started a petition asking management to reconsider this decision, and that petition now has more than 100 signatures.
- In the attached story, I spoke with 2 Auto-Owners Insurance employees who explained why they are against this decision.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
I'm your neighborhood reporter, Asya Lawrence.
During the pandemic, many of our neighbors went from working in the office to working from home. Now, 4 years later, some companies in my neighborhood are rolling back their work-from-home policy, causing some workers to take a stand.
"I work at Auto-Owners Insurance, and I've been there nine years," said Nathan Hallman, Auto-Owners Insurance employee.
When Nathan Hallman first joined the company, his day-to-day was pretty consistent.
"A normal office job," he said
Today, his role hasn't changed much, but his office setting has.
"After the pandemic started, we were suddenly allowed to work from home," Hallman said.
Since 2020, Auto-Owners Insurance employees have been working fully remotely, and in that time period, employees have been hired into fully remote positions.
One of those employees is Peter Broe.
" It was very much was a carrot that they used to incentivize people," Broe said.
But in October, Auto Owners employees received an email from upper management.
"We were just kind of told one day that nope, we had to come back in within the next six months, and there wasn't really any discussion around it," Nathan Hallman said.
Hallman says the email required employees to be in the office two days per week in January.
We were not able to see that email, but one employee says the company cited company culture and innovation as the reasoning.
Then, a group of employees came together to write a petition to upper management.
The petition urges them to rescind the incoming return-to-office policy, respect the discretion of individuals to decide what's best for them, and future decisions with transparency and factual reasoning.
The petition has received over 100 signatures from employees across the state.
We reached out to Auto-Owners Insurance management for a statement, and they did not respond.
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